#1553 – Focused

I don’t know if my dog is very smart. She doesn’t know any tricks, but that’s probably our fault for not teaching her any. Elphie knows her name and generally has an idea of what we want her to do. Beyond that, though, I don’t know if there’s much going on in her furry little head.

Elphie may not be the smartest dog, but she can definitely be the most focused dog. Last week I took her potty and there was a little piece of pizza crust in the grass. Elphie sniffed out the pizza crust and even got a little nibble before I pulled her away, leaving the crust behind. Every day since then, whenever I take her out, Elphie goes straight for that pizza crust. She may go along with where I’m leading her, but eventually she’ll guide me in the direction of the pizza crust.

It’s almost been a week and Elphie still can’t get that pizza crust out of her mind. It’s like everything else in her life is just waiting for the next opportunity to get that crust.

I’ve been known to have the same problem as Elphie. Sometimes my level of focus can be all-consuming, keeping me from thinking about anything else. Like Elphie, sometimes the object of my focus is pizza. More often than not, though, it’s not necessarily food related.

For quite some time I was very focused on Oblivion and then on Skyrim. All I wanted to do, all I could think about, was getting home and exploring Cyrodil.

Recently I got refocused on Contest of Champions. Every free moment was reserved for mashing my phone screen so that my heroes would defeat all the other heroes.

I’ve also gone through seasons of being focused on work, relationships, money, sleep and books. We all have times like Elphie when we can’t think of anything else. Unfortunately, sometimes we focus on sinful things that pull us away from God. How great would it be, though, if we could focus on something that would draw us closer to God?

I haven’t always been the best at focusing on those things that will bring me closer to God. In fact, for the most part, I’ve probably focused on things that didn’t really have anything to do with God at all. Recently, though, with Lent and trying to dedicate my mornings to God, I’ve had a little better focus. Instead of getting distracted by everything else in my life, I’ve actually been able to focus on the things of God. This has nothing to do with me, but all do to with God’s graciousness. He’s the one who has helped me actually wake up in the morning, ignore my phone and then spend time with him.

2 Corinthians 4:18 says:

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

We can’t be like my dog and focus on things that don’t matter. Instead we need to focus on the eternal things that will bring us closer to God. Thankfully, we can still enjoy pizza while focusing on the things of God.